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Review: One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes Published by Pamela Dorman Books on July 1st 2014 Genre: Chick Lit Format: Hardcover Pages: 368 Challenge Theme: A book with a number in the title Buy on Barnes & NobleBuy on Amazon

Synopsis:One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You.
Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages… maybe ever.

Review:
I absolutely adore Jojo Moyes and I have ever since “Me Before You,” which is one of my all time favorite books. Since then I have read a total of 4 of her books, have loved every one, and can’t wait to read the others. She writes a great love story and who doesn’t enjoy a love story?! I enjoyed the single mom angle because as most single mother’s know raising children on your own doesn’t leave much room for dating and the way Jess meets the love her of her life is unexpected & wonderful. From the instant I met Jess my heart went out to her. Raising two children with their individual idiosyncrasies, one that isn’t even her child by birth, without any help from the father makes her an amazing mother. She works two jobs to barely make ends meet all the while trying to do better for her children. Then she meets Ed, who is dealing with his own issues and mistakes, and they take a road trip and become a dysfunctional family that I absolutely fell in love with.

This book took me 2 days to read and like I have said before if a 368 page book only takes me two days you know I couldn’t put it down. Her writing is smart, her stories are wonderfully entertaining, and her characters have depth. I want to give it 5 stars but I can’t because, while I loved this book, she has “Me Before You” to live up to and I don’t think she ever could. That isn’t to say her books aren’t great, of course, but that book just hit me straight in the heart and can’t be touched.

Favorites Quotes:
“You know, you spend your whole life feeling like you don’t quite fit in anywhere. And then you walk into a room one day, whether it’s at university or an office or some kind of club, and you just go, ‘Ah. There they are.’ And suddenly you feel at home.”

“Real friends were the kind where you pick up where you’d left off, whether it be a week since you’d seen each other or two years.”

“The only thing Jess really cared about were those two children and letting them know they were okay. Because even if the whole world was throwing rocks at you, if you had your mother at your back, you’d be okay. Some deep-rooted part of you would know you were loved. That you deserved to be loved.”

“The law of probability combined with the law of large numbers states that to beat the odds, sometimes you have to repeat an event an increasing number of times in order to get you to the outcome you desire. The more you do, the closer you get. Or… basically, sometimes you just have to keep going.”

“I know I shouldn’t be,” he murmured, “but I woke up really happy.” His face scanned hers. “I mean, like, really, stupidly happy. Like even though my whole life is a disaster, I just…I feel okay. I look at you, and I feel okay.”

“She couldn’t believe losing someone you had known such a short time could feel like losing part of yourself, that it could make food taste wrong and colors seem dull.”

“So once upon a time Ed met a girl who was the most optimistic person he had even know. A girl who wore flip-flops in the hope of spring. She seemed to bounce through life like Tigger; the things that would have felled most people didn’t seem to touch her. Or if she did fall, she bounced right back. She fell again, plastered on a smile, dusted herself off, and kept going. He never could work out whether it was the single most heroic thing or the most idiotic thing he’d ever seen.”